It was fitting that the bullpen struggled in Joba Chamberlain's first big league start.
Chamberlain was wild in his 2 1/3 innings, the pen allowed six runs in the seventh and Roy Halladay settled down after a rocky beginning as the
Blue Jays crushed the Yanks 9-3 at The Stadium. Johnny Damon fell a home run short of the cycle and Jason Giambi purposely drove a pitch through the vacated left side of the infield for an RBI-single in the first inning (it's about freakin' time!), but it wasn't nearly enough to prevent the Yankees from dropping their third straight game.
The story heading into this one was Joba and the results were, well, incomplete. It's hard to judge Chamberlain's start when you knew how long he was going to last before he toed the rubber. Joba's control was off and he relied mostly on his fastball and slider. The young righty tossed an occasional curve, but I didn't see one change up. Toronto played it smart and took a ton of pitches and Jose Molina didn't help Joba's cause (one passed ball that led to a run in the first and a throw into center on Alex Rios' stolen base that turned into a run in the third). Molina's error came after Chamberlain departed, but that run counted on his ledger. In the end, Chamberlain's abbreviated performance looked like this: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R (1 earned), 4 BB, 3 K.
Dan Giese was called up on Tuesday (Scott Patterson we hardly
knew ye) as an insurance policy and pitched well. He ate up innings and kept the team in the game. Giese worked quickly, threw strikes and really deserved a better
fate, but he was tagged with the loss.
The Good:Johnny Damon. It must be that prepubescent mustache. Hey, whatever works. Johnny D extended his hitting-streak to 12 games with a three hit night. Damon finished 3 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.
The Bad:Edwar Ramirez. The lanky right-hander has had a great start to the season, but he's fallen on hard times lately. Ramirez blew a lead in his last appearance against the Minnesota Twins and he looked awful in relief of Jose Veras on Tuesday night. Edwar entered the game with the Yanks down 3-2 and inherited runners on first and third with one out. He couldn't recored an out. Ramirez threw 17 pitches and only three of them went for strikes. You know it's a bad night when LaTroy Hawkins takes your place. Ramirez's nightmare performance: 0 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 0 K.
LaTroy Hawkins. The Hawk came into a dire situation and turned it into a disaster. Hawkins gave up a bases loaded double to David Eckstein and a sacrifice fly to Marco Scutaro before the inning ended. The runs he allowed won't work against his ERA, but he was as responsible as Edwar for the Yankees unlucky seventh. LaTroy's line: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K.
The Ugly:
The Bronx cheer. Robinson Cano has been struggling offensively (again) and has fallen into a disturbing pattern at the plate. He refuses to let a pitch go by. He swung at the fist pitch in the bottom of the first and tapped back to Halladay for the final out of the inning. But the unthinkable happened in his second at-bat. He actually took a pitch. And the home folks rewarded him with derisive cheers. Cano has been averaging a little over three pitches per at-bat, but he worked the count to 2-2 before popping out to short.
Mike Mussina (8-4, 4.26 ERA) will assume the role of stopper on Wednesday night and goes against Jesse Litsch (7-1, 3.18 ERA). Litsch is having a terrific season and was superb in May, going 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA. In three career starts against the Bombers, Litsch is 1-1 with a 6.08 ERA. The Moose has won seven of his past eight starts and is 23-12 in 42 career starts against the Blue Birds. Those are the most wins Mussina has against any big league club.
Got another one in ya, Mike?
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Ugly loss. I understand Joba was limited pitch-wise for his first start but how did giving the game up to the bullpen so soon benefit them? Just...doesn't make sense.